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<blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 410075" data-attributes="member: 8">BARBIE (2023)[ATTACH=full]54443[/ATTACH]I decided to ignore BARBIE while it was still in the midst of its hype, so last night I watched it for the first time.After the introduction or BarbieLand (I&#039;m a sucker for life-size toy/cartoon worlds but the pink overload made me feel a little nauseous) the story starts with the impending crisis courtesy of the person playing with Barbie. This part reminded me of the perfect sitcom world of Pleasantville gettin upset by the real world teenagers.Once Barbie and Ken arrive in the real world it becomes a mix of parody and homage, and the trick is to find the right balance so that nothing has to be sacrificed.It&#039;s not as good as Galaxy Quest but I thought it was getting pretty close.Then at some point the real world mother starts a passionate speech about the hardship of being a woman (as if being man doesn&#039;t come with any expectations at all) and this really took me out of the fantasy. It felt like a bad moment of telling rather than showing.But then suddenly it struck me that everything she said doesn&#039;t make sense in the context of role reversed BarbieLand.In fact it is Ken (the film&#039;s temporary antagonist) whose story arc is told from a female oppressed point of view, and this should immediately take the sting out of any alleged wokeness.And while it may be dressed up as a liberation of women from the real world&#039;s point of view, BarbieLand itself strongly advocates and even battles for the idea that is &quot;in fact&quot; perfectly alright to aim for pretty airheadedness and fantasies about super careers that don&#039;t mean a thing. But from a child&#039;s point of view it doesn&#039;t have to mean anything and it&#039;s really only about acting out fantasies.I think this is why both the film and&nbsp; Mattel are massively getting away with it. The critique simply makes way for the reinforcement of Barbie.It&#039;s got tons of gags and even if I didn&#039;t laugh at everything then at least there wasn&#039;t anything in it that annoyed me. I had no idea Will Ferrell could be so funny.There&#039;s also no holding back when it comes to the Ken jokes, and I just loved all of it. And he also got the songs.So when all that great stuff has happened I guess they didn&#039;t want to compromise its ending by giving Barbie and Ken a happily ever after.Barbie going into the real world &quot;Little Mermaid&quot; style could also be interpreted as Barbie leaving the film and return to the shelves of the toy stores where all toys belong until they&#039;re being chosen by someone who wants to play with them.I&#039;m not sure if we needed a Barbie film, and the fact that they managed to produce a great Barbie film makes it even more special imo.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Willie Oleson, post: 410075, member: 8"] BARBIE (2023) [ATTACH type="full"]54443[/ATTACH] I decided to ignore BARBIE while it was still in the midst of its hype, so last night I watched it for the first time. After the introduction or BarbieLand (I'm a sucker for life-size toy/cartoon worlds but the pink overload made me feel a little nauseous) the story starts with the impending crisis courtesy of the person playing with Barbie. This part reminded me of the perfect sitcom world of Pleasantville gettin upset by the real world teenagers. Once Barbie and Ken arrive in the real world it becomes a mix of parody and homage, and the trick is to find the right balance so that nothing has to be sacrificed. It's not as good as Galaxy Quest but I thought it was getting pretty close. Then at some point the real world mother starts a passionate speech about the hardship of being a woman (as if being man doesn't come with any expectations at all) and this really took me out of the fantasy. It felt like a bad moment of telling rather than showing. But then suddenly it struck me that everything she said doesn't make sense in the context of role reversed BarbieLand. In fact it is Ken (the film's temporary antagonist) whose story arc is told from a female oppressed point of view, and this should immediately take the sting out of any alleged wokeness. And while it may be dressed up as a liberation of women from the real world's point of view, BarbieLand itself strongly advocates and even battles for the idea that is "in fact" perfectly alright to aim for pretty airheadedness and fantasies about super careers that don't mean a thing. But from a child's point of view it doesn't [I]have to[/I] mean anything and it's really only about acting out fantasies. I think this is why both the film [I]and[/I] Mattel are massively getting away with it. The critique simply makes way for the reinforcement of Barbie. It's got tons of gags and even if I didn't laugh at everything then at least there wasn't anything in it that annoyed me. I had no idea Will Ferrell could be so funny. There's also no holding back when it comes to the Ken jokes, and I just loved all of it. And he also got the songs. So when all that great stuff has happened I guess they didn't want to compromise its ending by giving Barbie and Ken a happily ever after. Barbie going into the real world "Little Mermaid" style could also be interpreted as Barbie leaving the film and return to the shelves of the toy stores where all toys belong until they're being chosen by someone who wants to play with them. I'm not sure if we needed a Barbie film, and the fact that they managed to produce a[I] great [/I] Barbie film makes it even more special imo. [/QUOTE]

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